AGRICULTURE: EU FARM INCOMES HIT BY MEAT SCANDALS.

• Position: Brief Article

Farm income was lower than 1998 levels in eleven Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and the United Kingdom). The highest rates of decline were recorded in Ireland (-12%), Denmark (-11%), Belgium (-9%) and the Netherlands (-6%). Agricultural income was unchanged in Greece. The only Member States to register increases were Luxembourg (+2%), Sweden (+6%) and Portugal (+16%).Logical fall in export returns.In 1999, real value added of the farming industry declined strongly across the EU (-6% compared with 1998) due to a clear decline in the real price of agricultural products (-5%) and a decrease in the level of subsidies (-2% in real terms) in line with World Trade Organisation rulings. As a result of the continuing decline in the agricultural workforce (-3%), Eurostat announced that income from farming activity fell by an average 3% in real terms in 1999.Animal output hit by one scandal after another.In 1999, the real prices of crop output declined by 4%, but the drop for animal output was even more pronounced at -6%. The effects of over-production in the pig sector in 1998 continued into 1999. Poultry and eggs were hit by overproduction starting at the beginning of 1999 and by the impact of revelations about the dioxin contamination of some poultry feed in the second half of the year. Real term prices for these three types of production declined by between 8 and 9%. Cattle and milk prices both fell by 5% in 1999.Prices remain stable as cereal output declines.The volume of cereal production for the EU in 1999 was 6% lower than in 1998. There...